First - Third Grades

First Grade

First grade is
very important, it’s where it all begins! Your child’s academic future is laid
when he/she learns the fundamental building blocks.

Children use
what they’ve learned in first grade throughout their lives and, perhaps more
importantly, their love or disdain for a subject is setting in.

Here’s what
you can expect when you send your child to St. Andrew’s Episcopal School:

· The ability to read at least 150
high-frequency words ("sight words") by year's end

· Reading grade-level books fluently (and understanding
them!)

· Spelling three and four letter words

· Writing readable, coherent, full sentences

· The ability to write a basic short story.

· Your child will be counting to 100

· Understanding addition and subtraction

· Basic geometry – compare, identify and
describe common shapes

· Read a clock and count money

Additional Activities:

· Journaling

· Weekly poetry time

· Parade of Pumpkins

· Special events with grandparents

· Guest speakers from the community

· Service learning partnerships

· Field trips

· Family Fun Night

· Kids’ Corner Newsletter

Second Grade

Second grade
students reach important milestones during their year of study. The experienced
teachers at St. Andrew’s understand how important this time is for children in this
stage of their academic development. Our staff meets each child where he/she is
and works with them to compliment individual learning styles and competencies.

Here are
some of the specific ways St. Andrew’s teachers, administration, and parents
work together to bring out the best in each second grader:

· Projects and activities are designed
to promote public speaking skills.

· Students learn to research topics and
discuss them.

· Creativity is encouraged through
writing assignments and group activities.

· No student is labeled and grouping is
flexible.

· Cross grade- level team work adds an
even greater element to learning.

· Mixed groupings of students is
accentuated through art and extracurricular programs.

· Co-teaching and occasional combining
of reading and writing classrooms expand student opportunities through exposure
to different perspectives and allow for even more personalized attention.

Third Grade

In the words of Donald J.
Hernandez, a professor sociology at City University of New York-Hunter College,
“Third grade constitutes a critical
transition – a pivot point – in a child’s education.”

Experts believe third grade
is the single most important year of an individual’s academic career. It’s the
year students move from learning to read, decoding words using their knowledge
of the alphabet, to reading to learn. If this academic hurdle is missed, it can
leave kids way behind, unable to gain new knowledge fast enough to keep up
during the rest of their academic careers.

St. Andrew’s third grade
teachers understand the importance of this year in a student’s life. That’s why
they work diligently to give students individual attention and a rigorous
learning environment.

Here is what you can expect
when you send your third grader to St. Andrew’s Episcopal School:

· Reader’s
Workshop

· Three to Four novels a year

· Literature circles (students’ choice of novel)

· Nonfiction reading

· Writer’s
Workshop

· Write daily on self-selected topics

· Variety of genres such as letters, poetry, essay

· Grammar

· Cursive handwriting

· Social Studies

· Map skills

· Study of states

· Citizenship

· World Geography

· Math

· Place Value, Computation with Whole Numbers, Geometry,
Measurement, Fractions, Decimals, the Four Basic Operations, and Time